DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS

With my fourth baby I developed 'deep vein thrombosis'. I had a bad cramp in the leg which got worse and worse until I couldn't put my foot on the ground. I was put straight into hospital and informed by the doctor that I would not be able to have any more children.

"Oh!" I replied, "I haven't finished yet!" But after our fifth baby we decided we couldn't continue this way. A friend encouraged my husband to get a vasectomy so John went and got the papers. They sat beside our bed for a few months, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to finish our family. In our hearts we believed it was wrong.

At this time, my fifth baby was sick and I carried him around night after night. I walked the floor until I collapsed with exhaustion. This baby was sick for a year. He cried and cried and they didn't know what was wrong with him. I eventually took him to a chiropractor who fixed him in one visit. "This baby has been getting bad headaches," he said. "In two days' you'll have a new baby."

It was during this fatiguing time that we had a prayer meeting in our home one evening. We had been praying for some time when John said, "Let us stop for five minutes and listen to what God is saying." God sure spoke to us that night. In fact, we had a visitation from God. John got a vision.

He saw God's love falling on us like snow. But he saw that the snow was falling on rocky terrain - there were boulders, rocks, and deep holes. As the snow fell, it covered everything until it was beautiful and smooth on top. "It's like God's love falling on us," he said, "but I don't know what it means."

"Oh, John, I know what God's talking about," I exclaimed. "God has just spoken to me and said, 'Yield your will to me and let Me send the babies. "But, oh John, I can't do it. I can't go any further." I looked at my circumstances - I was sleeping three hours every day just to be able to stand up for the rest of the day. I was caring for five little children and a husband who had great responsibilities in his business and I had deep vein thrombosis. The doctors said I could die if I had another baby. I looked at the boulders and holes, but God's love was telling us to yield to Him.

I have always had such a desire to do what God wanted me to do, so we prayed. I cried, "God, whatever you want for my life, that's what I want, so I'll say, 'Yes'." The lady who was praying with us nearly went into convulsions at the thought. But as I said, "Yes, Lord, I'm going your way," I felt a heat go in through the top of my head. It went right through my body and I was completely healed from the terrible physical exhaustion that had debilitated me for months. When I got up the next morning, I was totally healed and didn't look back. God gave me six months before I conceived our next baby.

I got to the end of this pregnancy and got deep vein thrombosis again. I had no option to go back to hospital and go through all the trauma and medication again. How could I ever go through t his again? We didn't believe in using the Pill or the IUD. So instead of trusting God we went back to our own intelligence.

We knew nothing at that time of how breastfeeding spaces babies and so in ignorance John said, "The baby's got to be fed, so we'll abstain until you come back to your cycle." I didn't come back to my cycle for 15 months! "Thank heavens," I thought, "life can come back to normal now."

But God spoke to me and said, "You have walked in disobedience." I started to fight God. "Now look, God, I have more babies than almost anyone I know and I can't keep going through this." For two months I went over and over it. I remember one day saying, "God, stop picking on me."

But He kept gently saying, "This is the way I want you to go. One night I knelt on the floor and cried, "God I want to walk in absolute surrender before you. I don't have the strength to do it. I don't know how to do it, but I'm handing it over to you and I'm asking you to do it in me. I will have as many children as you want me to have."

A few weeks later I conceived our seventh baby and I went right through this pregnancy without deep vein thrombosis. As the doctor handed me the baby and I looked down on this gift from God, He spoke to my heart, "There is no greater ministry in the church than this."

Fellow mothers, I want to encourage you that there is no greater ministry in the world today than motherhood. You may think that you are not accomplishing much, but I want you to know that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. I want you to know that there is great power in a mother's prayers. As we stand in the gap for our children, it doesn't matter what they are going through, it doesn't matter if they have strayed from God, because a mother's prayers are greater.

I tell my children, "You're going to change the nation!" "Cut it out, Mum," they say, "Who me?" "Yes, you!" I confess that I am going to have mighty men of God go across this nation and the world - not because they look like it, or because they feel like it, but it's going to happen because I believe.

The time came when I was pregnant with my eighth baby. At this time God started to send in books and tapes on healing. I started to read and was excited. I didn't know that I was about to fight the battle of my life. Soon my right leg started to get sore and the thrombosis came back with a vengeance.

I began to stand in faith for my healing. There was a working bee at a Christian school up the road and John went up and told everybody of my condition. They all came home, prayed for me and believed that God would heal me. I cried all day I was in so much pain. I walked in excruciating pain for a week and half before I was set free.

At this time, John was due to go to Sydney to be a part of a leadership conference. We didn't have another man on the farm and we still had two sheds of chickens (my husband is a chicken farmer) to go to market. But God spoke to me and said, "You let John go. I'm going to heal you."

I drove him to the airport, waved him off to Sydney and went home to twelve children (my widowed friend, Kaye, who had five boys, was also living with us) and 50,000 chickens! And I believed God. Nothing went wrong on the farm. John was away for a week and by the time he came home, I was healed of my deep vein thrombosis.

I had had to stand in faith through three pregnancies before I was healed of the thrombosis. But God is faithful. He will be faithful to you too. No matter how big the battle is, no matter what the circumstances, if you keep believing and trusting in God, you will get your provision. The doctors told me that I couldn't have any more babies, but I found out that I had been lied to.

We now have nine children. Our last precious treasure was born at home when I was 47 years and it was a glorious experience. God has honoured my obedience to him. Since I began to trust Him, I have experienced a healing with each pregnancy and am healthier and fitter today at 50 years of age and have more energy than when I was a teenager! During my ninth pregnancy, God healed me of extreme tiredness which I had lived with from a young person because of a dysfunctional liver. Our God can be trusted.

PAT TWOMEY
Narangba, Queensland, Australia.